As usual I have reserved a block of top-price stalls tickets for this Wigmore regular. The 2015 Glyndebourne tour offerings are two comedies – Mozart’s delectable harem Singspiel Die Entführung aus dem Serail and Donizetti’s Don Pasquale – plus a staging of Handel’s monumental oratorio Saul.

I have again booked rooms in The Shelleys, an attractive eighteenth-century building close to the centre of Lewes, now under new management and partly refurbished (hence the slightly higher prices). Glyndebourne is an easy 10-minute drive. There is ample parking at the hotel. Lifts to Glyndebourne will be available for those without cars. Scores or English translations of the libretti will be useful!

TUESDAY 27 OCTOBER
1.00 Arrival at The Shelleys, 135 High St Lewes, BN7 1XS
(01273 472361)
1.30-3.00 Study session on Saul in the hotel, with short break
3.25 Depart for Glyndebourne
4.00 Saul (revival of festival production by Barry Kosky) Cast includes
Henry Waddington (Saul), Christopher Ainslie (David), Sarah Tynan
(Merab), Anna Devin (Michal), cond. Laurence Cummings
Performance ends approximately 7.00.
7.45 Three-course dinner (choices for each course) in The Shelleys

WEDNESDAY 28 OCTOBER
10.30-12.30 Study session on Don Pasquale, with break
Free afternoon to explore Lewes
6.25 Depart for Glyndebourne
7.00 Don Pasquale (revival of festival production by Mariame
Clément) Cast includes José Fardilha (Pasquale), John
Brancy (Malatesta), Tuomas Katajula (Ernesto), Eliana
Pretorian (Norina); cond Duncan Ward
Performance ends approx. 9.30 Bar food, soup and sandwiches will be available in the hotel after the performance.
THURSDAY 29 OCTOBER
10.30-12.30 Study session on Die Entführung aus dem Serail
5.55 Depart for Glyndebourne
6.30 Die Entführung aus dem Serail (in David McVicar’s new 2015
festival production). Cast includes Ana Maria Labin (Konstanze),
Benjamin Bliss (Belmonte), Clive Bayley (Osmin);
cond Christoph Altestaedt
Performance ends approx. 9.30
Bar food, soup and sandwiches will again be available in the hotel